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South Korea goes to space

SEOUL, South Korea — It’s official: the hyper-wired tech center of Asia, South Korea, has joined the global space club, just weeks after its isolated archrival North Korea accomplished the same.

By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World

Jan 30, 2013

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South Korea in the red

SEOUL, South Korea — He’s worked all his life to graduate from an elite university this year. But in a tight job market, Kim Jun-sang, 23, is worried about escaping his pileup of debt. Sound familiar?

By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World

Jan 18, 2013

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Whatever happened to the Korean Wave?

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Beat down by the sweltering Cambodian sun, a group of teenagers took a rest from peddling pirated books and newspapers to tourists. One merchant switched on his mobile phone, playing the usual hit “Gangnam Style.”

By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World

Jan 14, 2013

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South Korean election: Vice and vanity in Seoul

SEOUL, South Korea — South Koreans assumed that Lee Kun-hee was the equivalent of royalty, an untouchable oligarch at the helm of one of the world’s largest companies, the Samsung Group.

By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World

Dec 18, 2012

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The End of the Vietnamese Miracle

HO CHI MINH CITY – In what was once one of Asia’s most exciting emerging markets, Nguyen Van Nguyen sees only gloom ahead. Since 2008, his business in southern Vietnam’s economic capital has suffered through two volatile bouts of inflation, peaking in August 2011 at 23 percent — at the time, Asia’s highest inflation rate.

By Geoffrey Cain
Foreign Policy

Jul 11, 2012

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Globalizing Censorship

In April 2011, a Vietnamese dissident explained to me why he gave up blogging critically about the government. “We have jobs, motorbikes, nice coffee shops, and big luxury buildings,” he said, pointing to the then-recently opened Bitexco Financial Tower, Ho Chi Minh City’s tallest edifice, with a helicopter landing pad jutting out of its side. “The Communist Party has made this blogging unprofitable. If we go up against them, how do we get a piece of that prosperity?”

By Geoffrey Cain
CARNEGIE COUNCIL for Ethics in International Affairs

Jun 28, 2012

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